Log Horizon (Tales of the West)
by The Andromeda
Summary: After being trapped in the game Elder Tale; Leonelo a Fox Tail adventurer finds himself in a series of events surrounding a mysterious young man called Adner. While travelling with him, he will find out that he is more than he appears to be. Adner is a twenty year old guy who hides a terrible secret about his past as a player. He who holds the power, the weakest of them all.
1. Chapter 1

**Name:** Leonelo  
 **Age:** 23  
 **Race:** Fox Tail  
 **Gender:** Male  
 **Height:** 172

 **Class:** Guardian  
 **Level:** 85

 **Subclass:** Woodcrafter  
 **Level:** 45

 **HP:** 11195  
 **MP:** 6153

 **Affiliation:** None/Single (Lived with his parents before the Catastrophe).

 **Friday, August 30, Year 001 AC (After the Catastrophe)  
Central American Server.**

There was nothing but black as the eye could see. Ashes from the great mountain covered everything from miles and miles.  
The volcano of Colima, was home of one the most dangerous raids in the whole central server.  
News about the "Dormant Fire Serpent" causing havoc in the villages around the area brought many adventurers to travel deep into the volcano, just to wake up back at the cathedral in the heart of Guadalajara almost instantaneously after meeting the boss at the summit.  
Normally once a year, the event "The Fire hunt" will take place around May the 20th, but after the Catastrophe, the event went unnoticed for a year, until now.  
In the lore, the serpent was once a king named Colima, who after being defeated by foreign invaders, fled to the mountain summit. Lusting for revenge, he made a pact with the evil mountain, also known as the "Fire Mountain", where in exchange of having revenge, he will become its eternal guardian. Thus, Quetzalcoatl, was born out of hate and bloodlust.

As I traveled in deep, the air became fouler, and thus it was harder and harder to breath by the minute.  
As I kept moving forward with my raiding party, I began recalling the sweetness of my home back in our world. The fresh aroma of rain in the morning, wetting the earth and realizing the presence of a smell only known in my home country.  
I was born in Mexico, but raised almost my entire adult life in the United States. When I became seventeen I began playing Elder Tale until the great Catastrophe, when I got stuck here with my best friend, whose user name is "inland Lama" by the way.  
We began travelling south in an effort to see the land of our people, the Mexicans, but more specifically the state of Guadalajara, right in the west of the country. Why? No reason, we didn't have anything to do, and we always talked about visiting the land of our ancestors when we grew up.

After the great catastrophe, the country disappeared almost entirely and it became known as the land of "Aztlane", with eight main cities where adventurers spawn. One of those was the city where my parents met, in the west.  
After settling there for a couple of days we heard the rumors of the Volcano of Colima and the Dormant Fire Serpent, so we joined a party raid of twenty four adventurers who settled up for "The Fire Hunt".  
I am a Guardian myself, my level is 85 and I am currently trying to level up my woodcrafter subclass.  
My companion and best friend, Inland Lama, he is a Pirate whose level is 86, and he usually brags about it every time he has the chance to.

We became interested by the news of the disasters in the villages of the People of the Land near the volcano. So we followed "Frederic", the level 90 Summoner, and his small guild, to the base of the volcano where one can hear the screams of the beast shake the earth.

That day I was feeling tired after travelling around the continent since the day we got stuck in this world.  
But I wasn't the only one. We did not realized how close we were to the boss area, we really could not see anything, until we heard the screams of the beast right in front of us.  
Frederic began shouting instructions to every one of us, I was to be one of the central tanks in the front. I held up my giant shield without compromising my visibility, but really, I could not see anything clearly with the ashes pouring down like snow.  
The heat was also unbearable, but we stood our ground in silence.  
A giant explosion cleaned up every trace of ashes in the atmosphere. In an instant, everything became clear, even the clouds began to fade away.  
Right in front of us, was the giant serpent laying on the flour. His health was almost depleted, one more strike was everything he needed to die.  
As we stood there speechless, an arrow flew right over the other side and pierced it, making him disappeared without leaving a trace.

We held our formation tight without even taking a breather.  
After the Catastrophe, the lands of the west had become the most dangerous ones for adventurers, we could not just lay down our guard, especially if we were against unknown Elder Tale player veterans.

As the rest of the fog cleared away, we could see a group of adventurers in red standing in formation on the other side. An Assassin was standing there between the two groups. He held is bow tight with his right arm, but he did not seemed to be wanting a fight. He took of his helmet, which was a combination between a traditional European knight and an Eagle warrior from the Aztecs. He was either a Human or a Half-Alv, we could not identify him at that distance, but his brown hair and shape of the body told us everything about his species.  
The only adventurer in black from his group approached him while putting down his giant sword. He tapped him in the shoulder and smiled to us.  
The leader of the group wielded a Giant spear and was literally covered all in red. He was standing behind his men when he began walking towards us, passing by the red archer and the black swordsman. He approached Frederic and extended his right hand. Frederic pitifully smiled back and accepted the handshake with gratitude.

While the rest of our raiding party began laying down their weapons and exchanging polite conversations with the other adventurers, my eyes where fixed in the archer who was still standing there watching us in silence. He was too far away for the menu display to show me his stats, and I was dying to meet him. I knew by looks of it, that it was him who stroke the final blow.

I began walking towards him in silence, he did not make any move or expression after seeing me approach him. When I was close enough, the menu display showed me his stats.  
First thing I saw was his race, he was a Half-Alv. Secondly, I saw his stats, he was level 90, which honestly did not surprise me at all. Thirdly I tried looking for his class, which I though was an Assassin, but as I focused on the name of his class, two words appeared right in front of me: "Battle Master".

I was startled at first, so I looked at him again without thinking it twice. His armor was extremely rare. He was bearing a pair of Capoerista's gauntlets, he had a bow and a quiver tied up in his belt. He had the armor of a guardian like me, and he also had a long sword, a sword which I knew very well, a Japanese sword. He had a Nagamaki in his back.

He noticed I stopped walking towards him, so he began walking towards me. I panicked and raised my shield in the spur of the moment. He took of some kind of mask that was hiding half of his face, mouth and nose. He greeted me with a smile, and stretched out his hand.

"My name is Adner, nice to meet you"  
He gently said. He had a deep voice which only freaked me up, but I recover my composure, and replied:

"Nice to meet you too Adner, my name is Leonelo…"

At that time I did not knew that I was meeting the greatest villain that the Central American server had ever seen. Nor did I knew what was about to come, what role I played in, in what was about to be known as "The Great Desolation" in the archives of the People of the Land, which devastated the Northern and Central continent.

Adner of the west, also to be known as "The Habanero Villain".


	2. Chapter 2

_¿Who am I? I am Adner of the West, also known as "The Habanero Villain" thanks to the things I helped create during "The Great Desolation".  
People always tend to think they know me thanks to the books of history. They can have a psychological profile of me, a medical point of view; a social, political and even economic criteria over the actions I took during the different series of events surrounding my life. All I can answer back is: Things are different when you are actually living the historical events and not just reading them. One can think: I would have done this, or done that, but in reality, when situations rise up, that's when a man's metal is tested. Because no good thing ever came to be, without it finding adversities, not in this world or in any other world.  
History may judge us all, but it was I, the one who defied destiny and won. I broke the laws of mechanics of a world that internally was innocent, but our corrupted minds tore it apart, leaving it with so many scars that no bard may ever sing again in those lands. No priest may pray again, no traveler can rest, no creature of any kind may find itself safe under the shadow of our failure.  
For there it rests, a reminder of what happens when you bring to an innocent world, a bunch of people from a corrupted one such as ours.  
I am Adner, this is my diary, the last pages I will ever write. If you ever find it to be, unpleasant, and unexplainably contradictory to the events told in the books of history, may I remind you, and warn you, history is written by the victors. And although the victors can always be object of superstition; products of the fantasies told by those who claim right to our successes, truth may find once again its way to the hearts of young readers such as the one who contemplates my last words in paper. I, for once, do not claim to be the owner of the absolute truth, not even the whole truth. I am merely even a storyteller, a witness, one of many, whose subjective truth is the one which I lived and fought for, until my last breath was ripped apart by those who once claimed to love me.  
Was I blind to the trivial arrogance that forced my once, dear family, to commit one of the most common, yet ever painful sin to be done to a mortal?  
Probably.  
Yet here I am, facing the strong winds of the north. I may be alone, in the darkness of a forgotten era, dusting in the unending books of a library, but even when an entire nation rose against me, my name will be remembered for all the ages.  
I am Adner, and this is my story. _

I woke up one morning just to realize that the world had changed. I had lived with my family in Mexico since I can remember. My mother was the daughter of a high respected man in society, and my father the descendent of a lineage of national sports champions. I was musician and an engineer, I began programing since I was 13, just to realize that here in Mexico not to many guys were able to achieve the things I did back in the day.  
As one can expect from a guy like me, I began my career as a hacker at a very young age. And I am sure you are thinking: ¡Oh! I know where this guy is going, and let me assure you: You are absolutely right. When I stumbled with Elder Tale, there was no difference, security here in Mexico has always been lacking, and even though life was hard, happiness blossomed in the streets where ever you went.  
So, I hacked the game, but I always liked to consider myself a moderate hacker, not the one who cheats in a way so obvious that even a two year old will realize, but more a subtle one.  
The only thing I implemented, and it was really a work of art, was the ability to change my class and subclass whenever I wanted. Is cheating, but at least I didn't make it unbelievably unfair for the other players, I just wanted to had all the advantages when going alone in the wilderness. I never liked to join a party, only with my two brothers, before they became guild masters. I was more like a lone wolf, and I never complained about it. I liked my solitude and with my ability to hack, there was no raid so strong or difficult for me to conquer. At least that's what I thought.

That morning when I opened my eyes, I was standing right in front of the cathedral, at the heart of Guadalajara. Everything was so different, the cathedral was in complete ruins; trees grew from the inside of the building, tearing apart the walls and the roof. As I looked at my surroundings I realize that the entire city was suddenly in the same condition; grass grew and covered everything, from small houses to big ones, from the tallest building to the lowest street.  
I heard a scream in the distance, a scream that chilled out my bone and made me sweat deeply. I began controlling my breath as I began analyzing the situation, hoping for the worst. As I continued to look for answers without making a single move, screens began appearing and disappearing right in front of me. Up in the right there was my name Adner, my Elder Tale name, down below was my race, Half-Alv, and at the bottom of the screen was my class, which began shaking, changing form Guardian, to Assassin, then a Monk, and a Cleric, then the cycle began repeating itself over time more rapidly. I began sweating intensely as I felt a fire burning inside my body. A light appeared and began covering me completely. I rose from the ground approximately ten inches for about ten minutes when the pain disappeared completely and I lost consciousness.  
As I woke up a second time, everything had changed once again. I was still in the ruins of Guadalajara, but the screens had stopped appearing and disappearing, the light was slowly fading away. I checked my name: Adner, level 90, race: Half-Alv, class: Battle Master, I stopped for a minute as I went back to read again: **Battle Master**. Quickly I began searching for others abnormalities. I had four bars of HP and MP, each one of them with a different name: Monk, Guardian, Assassin and Cleric, and each one of them had the stats of the classes I used to play the most in Elder tale.  
At first a great joy filled my body as I considered myself lucky for preserving at least four classes and each one of them with their respective HP and MP.  
The Monk was level 90, the Guardian level 50, the Assasin level 70, and the cleric level 90. Everything was surreal, and of course I was considering myself to be, at the moment, in the world of Elder Tale. How was I able to be there? I didn't knew, but no matter where I looked everything was familiar and at the same time new.

I wished my luck had been better that time, for when I analyzed my screen once again I realized one small detail hanging there with all the other blessings (I gave them that name).  
My curse. Hiding there in small letters it said: **Subclass: People of the Land**.


End file.
